A RiffTrax Starter Kit, Part Five - And Furthermore!
By Sugar Ray Dodge, RiffWiki.net Editor-in-Chief Greetings fellow RiffHeads! It's been a couple of years since we completed this guide of how to get into RiffTrax, a movie riffing entertainment company that includes the talents formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett! Many MSTies and other n00bs often ask me and other RiffTrax fans where to start, and the answers are so all over the place that it seemed too overwhelming. The reason for the creation of this guide was to boil everything down and give people a clear way into RiffTrax. In 2015 the four part feature was sufficient, but three years later so much has happened and changed that we feel compelled to update this guide. Go ahead and check out the original four parts before or even after you read this new addendum, which we are dubbing “And Furthermore!” Part One: Essentials | Part Two: Next Steps | Part Three: Deep Cuts | Part Four: And the Rest Part Five: And Further More! ' ' Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice - This is by far the most ambitious riff RiffTrax has done to date. A total of 13 riffers, including all RiffTrax Presents teams, the Mads and the introduction of writers Conor Lastowka and Sean Thomas as riffers taking on the most hated movie of 2016, Batman v. Superman. It is a monumental team effort that only RiffTrax could pull off. You do not want to deprive yourself of this one. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown - Around Christmas time, sometimes as early as November, RiffTrax likes to throw some serious weirdness at us. In 2016, Whizzo the Clown burst onto the scene and shocked the entire audience at just how weird a rambling old clown can actually be. It made such a huge impact that it was voted the 2016 Riff of the Year right here on the RiffWiki. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' Miami Connection - Nothing has defined the RiffTrax experience in the last three years than Miami Connection. This idea about ninja orphans who also play in a very bad rock band, combined with heaps and heaps of purple and pink 80s cheese and the ridiculous story, script and acting produce something so jaw droppingly absurd that nobody can look away. Get. It. *'Get the studio riff at RiffTrax.com!' *'Get the live show at RiffTrax.com!' Mothra - Mothra is the perfect RiffTrax movie. It's bizarre, yet familiar within popular culture. It has an implausible premise. It moves very slowly. The characters do not behave like any normal sane person would. The acting is horrific. But the most important part about movie selection is unique imagery, with Mothra provides in spades. A big ol' moth flyin' around, flappin' his wings at everybody to death? Yes please. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' Replica - This is a very unique entry. As many of you probably already know, James Nguyen's iconic movie, Birdemic: Shock and Terror, was actually his third film. This was riffed in 2011 and is arguably the greatest RiffTrax of all time, with only The Room having enough of a presence to challenge for that title. In 2015, a riff of his first movie, Julie and Jack was released. But there has always been this elusive middle chapter that nobody has really been able to find, and that's because Nguyen never publicly released his sophomore effort, Replica. But in 2017, RiffTrax did something it never had before. It actually released a movie to the public for the first time ever. Nobody had seen this thing before RiffTrax released the unriffed version two weeks before they released their riff. And it is amazing. It has all the beloved James Nguyen tropes we've come to be so familiar with, many of the same actors and probably the most absurd death in cinema history. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' Samurai Cop - Along with Miami Connection, Samurai Cop has become one of the most essential entries in the RiffTrax catalog, taking its place alongside Birdemic, The Room, Manos, Twilight, and so on. It's one of the few VODs that had a huge cult following before being released by RiffTrax. From the iconic first line “we are not an established gang yet,” to Samurai Cop's Cher wig, to literally everything the legendary Robert Z'Dar says, does and looks at, this one is cheesy, incompetent goodness from start to finish. *'Get the studio riff at RiffTrax.com!' *'Get the live show at RiffTrax.com!' Star Games - Greydon Clark, director of other classics such as Final Justice, Angels Revenge, and Uninvited, throws his own kids in starring roles in what ended up being the last movie of his career. Unfortunately for all of them, that movie happened to be Star Games. This movie throws weirdness at you at a rapid fire pace. Literally every two minutes some new insane thing you couldn't possibly anticipate appears on screen. You're not even over the previous insane thing when the next one smacks you right in the face. I hesitate to give out specifics, but that would be akin to spoiling the fact that Luke Skywalker dies at the end of The Last Jedi! (#GetOverIt!) But I will leave you with two words before you dive into this one. Neon. Vomit. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' Star Wars: The Force Awakens '''- I remember so much about that glorious day we all found out Disney bought Star Wars, it was one of the most insane, unexpected and wonderful things I had ever heard in my life. It just fell out of the sky and landed as a gift-of-awesome right in our laps, something nobody could have anticipated and the last thing on anybody's mind. And, I kid you not, within the first ten minutes of this news dropping I said out loud to nobody in particular “this means more Star Wars RiffTrax.” And as awesome as the movie itself was, it was just as awesome of an experience when I heard it with Mike, Kevin and Bill for the first time. People think riffing is only for bad movies, something I wish I could more effectively argue against. Good movies, even GREAT movies, can bring out amazing riffs and I think it needs to happen more often. *Get it at RiffTrax.com!' 'The Wizard' - This one was a long time coming, and when we finally got it in 2015, it was beyond anybody's expectations with how good it was. The iconic Power Glove was only the beginning because the film offers up so much more to knock out of the park riff-wise. This movie effectively killed Fred Savage's career, it's like the Wonder Years never even happened, to say nothing of the naked Nintendo product placement. Product placement is not a bad thing, but this thing just went overboard with, what amounted to, a 90 minute advertisement for Super Mario Bros. 3. When the movie gods give you this much to mock, the results are bound to be stellar. *'Get it at RiffTrax.com!' 'The Wonderful Land of Oz' - This is all you gotta know about this movie: it's an unauthorized sequel to The Wizard of Oz, made by the director of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny and was filmed at Pirates World. *[https://www.rifftrax.com/the-wonderful-land-of-oz '''Get it at RiffTrax.com!'] And that's it for this entry, but there's still more to come. In Part Six we'll take a look at some of the more obscure entries that ought to be required viewing for any new RiffTrax fan, including entries from all RiffTrax Presents teams. Until then, be sure to check out the first four entries of this feature. Part One: Essentials | Part Two: Next Steps | Part Three: Deep Cuts | Part Four: And the Rest Part Five: And Further More! To Be Continued... Category:RiffTrax Starter Kit